84-year-old man dies after leaping from Jamestown-Scotland ferry

James City

JAMES CITY — As the ferry Pocahontas neared the midway point of the James River around 2:30 p.m. on a cold, rainy Monday, an elderly Williamsburg man leaped to his death into the frigid waters.

The 84-year-old man, whose name was not released, was in the river about 15 minutes before being pulled into a rescue boat by two members of the ferry's crew, said James City County Police Lt. Jeremy Barnett. The water in the river was about 47 degrees at the surface Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

The Jamestown-Scotland Ferry, which runs between Jamestown and Surry County, was shut down for about two hours while police and fire officials investigated the death.

Officials said the ferry was on its way to Jamestown, and was almost exactly in the center of the river when the man went overboard. The crew of the ferry launched the small rescue boat immediately after the man jumped.

The James City Fire Department and state wildlife officers also scrambled to launch boats from the Jamestown Yacht Basin, but the ferry-crew members reached the man first, Barnett said.

The ferry crew dropped the small outboard johnboat from the ferry's deck in an attempt to rescue the man, who had been thrown a life buoy, according to passengers in one car who were aboard the vessel. The passengers also watched as the man was pulled from the water.

The two ferry-crew members were able to take the man as far as Sandy Bay, near Jamestown Island, before the johnboat became grounded in the shallow estuary. James City rescue teams and police met the ferry workers where they were stuck, along a narrow causeway to the island.

The man was from Williamsburg but had driven onto the ferry on the Surry side, said Barnett. He was alone on the ferry.

Vehicles were finally allowed to leave the Pocahontas on the Jamestown side of the river about 3:25 p.m.

At 3:30 p.m., vehicles waiting to take the ferry to the Surry side were backed up to Jamestown Settlement. Ferry service resumed around 4:45 p.m., about two hours after the ordeal began.

The man's car was to be towed and impounded, Barnett said.

Barnett said it was the first instance of someone jumping from the ferry in his nearly 20 years with the James City police.

In 2001, a Petersburg woman attempted suicide near the ferry pier at Jamestown, according to Daily Press archives. The woman gunned her car off an old boat launch, landed in about two feet of water and was rescued by a bystander unharmed.